From the Norwegian Refugee Council - Last week the residents of the Gaza Strip were hit by a cold winter storm. The strong winds, low temperatures and heavy rains caused damage and floods in different parts of the Gaza Strip. Gas heaters make a big difference for displaced families. The storm forced dozens of families to evacuate their flooded houses. Gaza’s basic infrastructure was already in a fragile state prior to further large-scale destruction that occurred during Israel’s military offensive against the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014. The storm, which started on Tuesday, 6 January 2015, and reached its peak by Friday, claimed the lives of four Palestinians in Gaza, three of whom were children, according to media reports. NRC has taken a leading role in coordinating the response in the most vulnerable communities in the Gaza strip following the storm, through facilitating distribution and installation of plastic sheeting to prevent water leakages, coordinating distribution ...

A Norwegian physician who has volunteered in the medical field in the Gaza Strip repeatedly in recent years has been banned by Israel from ever returning. Dr. Mads Gilbert, who most recently spent time working in Gaza during Israel's massive summer assault that left nearly 2,200 dead, has revealed that he was denied entry in October when he tried to re-enter the besieged coastal enclave through the Erez crossing. The Israeli foreign ministry has confirmed the ban, calling Dr. Gilbert a "Jekyll and Hyde" figure, apparently for his political activism on behalf of the Palestinian cause. Gilbert has been a vocal critic of Israeli policy against Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip. "This is not about me. This is about Israel denying the Palestinian people in Gaza international support," Gilbert told The Independent. "To deny professionals from the medical field the right to go to Gaza is another aspect of the collective punishment. They're e...

A major Norwegian trade union has terminated its contract with security company G4S in protest of the firm’s role in providing equipment and services to Israeli prisons and settlements. Industri Energi, a trade union for workers in the energy and heavy industry sectors, had been using the company to provide security at its offices in Stavanger in the south of Norway. Announcing that the contract will now be terminated, union leader Leif Sande told Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen that the move was taken as “an act of solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people.” G4S is contracted to provide and maintain security equipment at Israeli prisons. The equipment includes monitoring systems, cameras and control rooms in which Palestinians are detained without trial and subjected to torture. The company also provides equipment and services to Israeli checkpoints and settlements in the occupied West Bank. The University of Oslo and both businesses and not-for-profit groups acr...

Palestinian Mission in the United Kingdom said in a Press release that as part of the Liverpool 2012 Biennial exhibition, a living Art performance consisting of a hot-air balloon fashioned in the colours of the Palestinian flag with "Palestinian Embassy" written across flew over the city of Liverpool. The event on the 14th and 15th of September included the inauguration of a Palestinian Embassy and balloon trips over the city. Departing from the city centre, politicians and academics joined together aboard the balloon for discussions on topics concerning the Palestinian people's diplomatic and democratic conditions. The Art performance was brought to Liverpool from Oslo by the producers, Public Art Norway (KORO) in cooperation with Fritt Ord (Freedom of Expression), UNISON and the Palestinian Embassy. The Norwegian group won the bid for international applied art at the Biennial City States competition in which they sought to combine a prominent political issue on th...

(Photo: Boikott Israel-kampanjen i Bergen) Norwegian retail chain VITA made public on Friday their decision to stop all sales of products originating from settlements in occupied Palestine. VITA will therefore stop selling products from the cosmetics brand Ahava. VITA has been the main retailer of Ahava products in Norway, and this decision will be a serious blow to the sales of Ahava products in Norway. The principled decision by VITA not to buy products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank is based on a position of not wanting to contribute to violations of international law. This is also the position of Norgesgruppen, a company holding 49% of the shares in VITA. BAMA, another Norgesgruppen company has implemented the same policy regarding Israeli fruit and vegetables for several years already. more

From The Electronic Intifada Immediately after news of the bombing of government buildings in Norway’s capital Oslo, the Internet buzzed with speculation about who might have done it and why. Most speculation focused on so-called Islamist militancy and Muslims. The urge to speculate after grave events is understandable, but the focus of speculation, its amplification through social media, its legitimization in mainstream media, and the privilege granted to so-called experts is a common pattern. The danger of such speculation is that it adds little knowledge but causes real harm by spreading fear and loathing of Muslims, immigrants and other vulnerable and routinely demonized populations, and whether intentional or not, assigns collective guilt to them. “Experts” who supposedly study this topic — almost always white men and very often with military or government backgrounds — direct suspicion toward Muslims by pointing to claims of responsibility on “jihadi” web sites that only they hav...

(Sunneva Elvarsdottir and Runar Nygård at their checkpoint in the wall. Photo: Andrea Hegdahl Tiltnes) Tromsø is formally twinned with Gaza. Thanks to iGaza user Floyd Rudmin for sending in this story from the Arctic Circle! Tromsø University is also home to Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert who has done so much to expose the horrors inflicted by Israel's testing of its new tungsten munitions (DIME bombs) in Gaza. See story from the town's pro-Palestine youth group below. "Riv Muren" means "Tear down the Wall": - Freedom of movement is an important part of human rights, and no one has the right to close within a nation such as Israel does to Palestinians. They do it anyway, "said political leader of the Palestine Committee's youth Tromso (PUT), Torkel Fjørtoft Nohr (18). Saturday action, he and the rest of PUT on Main Street in Tromsø in connection with that it is 62 years since Israel was created. Mur on Main Street The young people built a wall acros...

Løkkeberg’s film documents Israel's brutal attack on Gaza in 2008/9 through the eyes of three children. The Qatar Film Festival is sponsored by Al Jazeera. (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Norwegian film director Vibeke Løkkeberg has won one of the main prizes up for grabs at the Qatar International Documentary Film Festival, organized by Al Jazeera, for her film Gaza’s Tears. Commenting to newspaper Aftenposten after her win, Løkkeberg said that “it is always gratifying and surprising to receive a prize, and it is very fun that the film was picked out by a jury from all over the world.” The film was awarded the Public Liberties and Human Rights Award in Doha, Qatar, and the director will receive the equivalent of NOK 58,000 (nearly USD 11,000) in prize money. more

Norwegian parliamentarians to join Freedom Flotilla 2 - Stay Human. ShiptoNorway website is here (Norwegian) A convey of ships, known as the “Freedom Flotilla 2 – Stay Human,” will attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza with as many as 20 Norwegian participants, including parliamentarians, either at the end of May or June. The Norwegian activists, calling themselves “Ship to Gaza Norway,” aim to break the blockade along with representatives from 10 other countries and deliver aid to local and international relief organizations, and have rejected claims that the aid will end up with Hamas... ... A number of politicians have expressed an interest in joining the convoy, something which participant Gerd von der Lippe told Aftenposten would make the Israeli soldiers “become less crazy” and give the flotilla “a large degree of legitimacy.” Jette F Christensen and Stine Renate Håheim of the Labour Party, and Akhtar Chaudhry of the Socialist Left Party, have all promised to attend if t...

Israel made it clear to the US, if it wasn't already, that they deliberately keep Gaza's economy "on the brink of collapse", according to US cables released by WikiLeaks and published in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten . The document says Israeli officials repeatedly confirmed the embargo's goal was to keep Gaza's economy functioning "at its lowest possible level without getting a humanitarian crisis." The newly released cable was published by Norway's Aftenposten newspaper. The document was dated November 3, 2008, just weeks before Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip to stop Hamas militants from firing rockets on Israeli towns. See Voice of America report here . Afenposten has stopped its English-language but for Norwegian speaker the article is here .

Haaretz published an interesting piece on the impact of the economic boycott, bemoaning the fact that the Chilean parliament has just passed support for an economic boycott, in addition to moves by pension and investment funds in Sweden and Norway to divest from Israeli defence industry firm Elbit Systems . Laughably the growing influence of the BDS movement is put down to an alliance between the far left and Islamists - apparently the Islam side provides the money and the lefties the troops. What a load of nonsense. The Haaretz journalist twists the obvious fact that it is Israel's actions itself that is driving the movement forward, with the spurious argument that if only Israel had not been a 'light unto nations' in the first place it may have avoided 'disappointing' those supporters now. There's another boycott, an international one, that's gaining momentum - an economic boycott. Last week the Chilean parliament decided to adopt the boycott of Israeli p...

Members of Adalah NY call for boycott of Leviev for its crimes against Palestinians and South Africans New York, NY, May 9 – On the day before Mother’s Day, 40 New York human rights advocates gathered at the Leviev jewelry store on Madison Avenue and called on throngs of weekend Madison Avenue shoppers to boycott Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev over his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in West Bank villages including Bil’in and Jayyous. Mother’s Day is one of the biggest jewelry shopping periods in the US annually. The New York protest came as controversy is growing in Norway over Norwegian government investments in Leviev’s company Africa-Israel . The New York protesters also commemorated Bassem Abu Rahma from Bil’in who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers last month during a peaceful protest against the construction on Bil’in’s land of Israel’s wall and of the Mattityahu East settlement by a Leviev company. Thanks to vivapalestina.us (not co...

Israel is stopping two Norwegian delegations from entering Gaza. The Israelis have refused to provide an explanation but it is probably related to the fact that the Norwegian chief prosecutor is considering opening war crimes investigations on Israel's leaders during the Gaza war. Israel's ambassador to Norway was Friday summoned to the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he received a protest from Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere against Israel's refusing to allow two Norwegian delegations entry to the Gaza Strip. A delegation of parlamentarians from the Socialist Left Party was to have left for Gaza via Israel on Sunday, but have been denied a visa. No reason was given, but the head of the delegation, Oystein Djupedal, says he believes Israel is not willing to allow outsiders to see the major destructions in Gaza. The delegation was to have visited Norwegian aid workers and aid projects on the Gaza Strip, partly financed by money granted by the Norwegian Parliament (...

Israel's attempts to counter moves in a number of countries towards war crimes prosecutions of Israeli leaders and soldiers is falling flat. As Amnesty commented, Israel's own recent inquiry 'lacks credibility'. Now there's an understatement. Meanwhile in Norway moves to prosecute Israel's war criminals gather pace... OSLO, (PIC)-- After the filing on Wednesday of a war crimes case against Israeli leaders by a group of Norwegian lawyers on behalf of people and families affected by the war on Gaza, the chief prosecutor said the complaint will be studied. "We will follow normal procedure, which means we will look through the complaint to determine whether or not to send it to the police to carry out a formal investigation," Siri Frigaard, chief prosecutor at Norway's National Authority for Prosecution of Organized and Other Serious Crimes, told Reuters on Thursday. The complaint by Norwegian lawyers has been filed under a law which allows foreigners...

AP reports that Norwegian Lawyers are putting together cases against Israel's political and military leaders for war crimes and have passed details to the country's chief prosecutor. Israel may withdraw their ambassador. Israel will have hardly any ambassadors anywhere in the field at this rate. They have withdrawn their ambassador in Switzerland for 'talks'. Certainly Olmert won't be visiting the fjords of Norway anytime soon, unless he likes hanging out in prisons.